Sunday, January 29, 2017

Weekly Artful Advocacy 'Fabulous Five' - #2

2017 is one month old.Here are this week's 'Fabulous Five' - five terrific ideas to liven up February, as we move closer to Youth Art Month. Many high schools have a Senior Night/Spirit Week during this time, and some of the great ideas listed here could be used as a guaranteed way to energize the celebrations! Or if there's no Spirit Week or Senior Night, use ideas #1 & #2 to enliven an otherwise ordinary week of school.

1)Do a Stop Drop & Draw - everyone in the school - for 15 minutes. Entire school (and staff) display their work!

2) So You Think You Can Draw Challenge - do this by grade level/class challenge/faculty and staff challenge.

3) Invite local artists to YAM openings - make them honorary chairpersons. (Line these folks up now!)

4)If your community has an electronic billboard for community events, see if they can scan in a piece of student artwork to promote YAM as it approaches, or to promote one of the school-wide arts events listed here.

5)Create a famous cutout of a work of art (the Mona Lisa, The Scream, or American Gothic perhaps). Have photos taken of kids in the cutout for $1, and donate proceeds to a local charity. Be sure the cutout has the YAM logo on it! You can do this at school events. Better yet, bring it out into the community!! (Here's a pic of me taken in one such Scream cutout at a school art show a couple of years ago.)